(k)mplayer for bktr TV playing [Re: Problems with fxtv]

[Danny Pansters]

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list so that poeple can profit from the archives ]

On Sunday 10 April 2005 02:11, you wrote:
> Hi Dan,
>
> Thanks so much for your reply.  Does (k)mplayer support TV tuners?  If so,
> do you need to provide the frequencies?  I couldn't find the frequencies
> on Comcast's website.  I'll try to call them on Monday.

Yes. The bktr has two (main) parts to it, the capture (meteor) function and 
the tuner (tv). mplayer initializes both (so does fxtv) but kmplayer invokes 
a new mplayer every time you change channels/frequencies. This may not matter 
but if you get lots of hangs/freezes when changing channels, fxtv may work 
better for you. I think the freezing is a hardware problem that may or may 
not occur.

With kmplayer you should do the following:

In your .kde/share/config/kmplayerrc, at least add the following:

[TV]
Devices=/dev/tuner
Driver=bsdbt848

And create a [/dev/tuner] section with at least something like this:

[/dev/tuner]
Audio Device=/dev/mixer
Inputs=0:Composite1;1:Television;2:S-Video;3:Composite3
Name=Pinnacle/Miro TV
No Playback=false
Norm=PAL
Size=-1,-1
Television=Ned1:184;Ned2:192;Ned3:200;RTL4:744;RTL5:720;SBS6:632;Yorin:648;Veronica:792;Net5:504;Discovery:848;Animal 
Planet:776;Nat. 
Geographic:832;Preview:232;Een:208;Canvas:216;BBC1:664;BBC2:696;BBC 
World:856;Eurosport:840;Euronews:544;CNN:760;MTV:784;TMF:752;The 
Box:712;ARD:528;ZDF:568;WRD:624;TV5:736;Brabant 
TV:488;Lokaal:480;Royaal:512;Info:224;Nickelodeon:728;TRT:824

Initially it only needs the Inputs line (I have TV at input 1 not at 0 which 
is kinda peculiar), the Name is what you can set up through the GUI, it's not 
required to get it going, neither are (in my case) the No Playback, Norm, 
Size parameters. The Television= part should have at least one working 
name:frequency (or maybe three, I'm not sure).

Note that 'Television' is an arbitrary name as is the 'Name' param.

If you only add the minimum, you should be able to go into the settings -> 
configure menu, then source -> TV, and do scan or go to the /dev/tuner tab if 
it already there. Then under 'Television' (or whatever other arbitrary name 
you gave the input corresponding with your tuner) you can add Channel/Freq 
tabel values for all your stations. 

I know that the code as-is doesn't work well with the "Norm" (eg pal, secam, 
ntsc) but the bktr cards usually have good autodetection and that should be 
enough I think.

HTH,

Dan

P:, bktr also has provisions for channelsets (mainly US oriented) perhaps you 
can also use that. For me with fxtv and for everyone with kmplayer you need 
to ahve a frequency set to fill in.


> Again, many thanks for your reply,
> Mike
>
> On Sun, 10 Apr 2005, Danny Pansters wrote:
> > On Saturday 09 April 2005 23:17, Michael Butschky wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I just purchased a Hauppauge WinTV-GO-Plus and am trying to get it to
> >> work with fxtv.  When the system boots, it recognizes the bktr device
> >> fine. But, when I bring up fxtv, all I get on all the channels are
> >> static.  Note that  I am using Comcast Super Basic cable service from
> >> the 21114 zip code.  Is there something I need to do with the frequency
> >> mapping?
> >
> > Yes. See /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/Fxtv, you can add channel names
> > <--> frequencies there. I got my set of frequencies from my cable
> > provider's info (I'm in Holland). They should have that info somewhere
> > for their customers. I think if you have such a config file for fxtv in
> > your ~ directory it's called just Fxtv or rcsh something like that (I
> > remember installing NetBSD on another slice about 3 months ago and using
> > a shared home partition and it immediately used the stations I had set up
> > as well as the fonts/colors). See the fxtv man page also.
> >
> > Lately I've been using (k)mplayer for tv but I did use fxtv a lot before.
> > I don't have it installed at present though.
> >
> >
> > HTH,
> >
> > Dan